? The Commodores have been wrecked by injury and attrition. They lost four players for various reasons over the summer, then center Josh Henderson injured a knee and now leading scorer and point guard Eric McClellan was suspended this week for the remainder of the season for a violation of university academic policy. McClellan, former Tulsa transfer, was averaging 14.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists.

? Mississippi State outscored Kentucky 10-2 in transition to build a halftime lead Wednesday night and finished with a 16-10 edge in that category. "That is something that we have to work on, but it is inexcusable, really," assistant coach John Robic said. Hawkins said a scripted transition drill is the first thing UK does in practice now. "We push the ball up the court and see how fast we can get it up the court," he said. Added Cauley-Stein: "I think Coach Cal (John Calipari) would like that to be half the game, transition buckets. Those are easy buckets that you don't have to worry about trying to run a set in the half court. At least 20 points should be transition buckets."